Then the Rains Came
by HOLLOWpoint headers
Summary: My ending to the short story The Lady or the Tiger. If you havn't read the story don't worry, I included a summery. This was originally an english paper but I edited and revised it a bit. Please read and review, its much appreciated.


Author's Note: I don't know how many of you have read the short story The Lady or the Tiger, but for an assignment in my english class we wrote our own conclusions to the story by Frank Stockton. I'll summerize the story for those of you who haven't read it and don't want to (although I personally recomend it).

In a semi-barbaric kingdom (somewhat like the Romean civilization) there was a king who invented a rather strange justice system. Any time a man was accused of any crime he was sent into an arena with two doors in it. Behind one door was a tiger and behind the other was a lady. No one knew what was behind each door. The man would open the door of his choice. If he opened the door with the tiger he was, well, enough said. If he opened the door with the lady he married her on the spot even if he already had a wife.

Now there was an extremely handsome young man at court of common descent who caught the princess's eye. They fell in love and were untimately discovered. All the people were exceedingly curious about this trial for they had heard of the youth's atractivelness. A lady was picked of suitable contenance and position and one of the fiercest of tigers was chosen. The princess learned all she could about her lover's trial. She was furious when she leared of the lady whom the princess hated. She had seen her love speak with the lady before and had feared, as any overly jealous lover would, that they had fallen in love. Using the sway of her influence of status and bribary, the princess was able to discover who was behind which door.

When the day of the man's trial arrived, he turned to bow to the king as was customary but his eyes were on the princess. He knew she would have discovered who was behind the doors. She lifted her hand and waved sharply to the right. No one saw her because they were all captivated by the man's looks. The man turned and walked to the door on the right and opened it.

At this point the story ends, but Stockton put in a brief conclusion. He leaves it to the readers to determine what came out of the door, the lady or the tiger. What would the princess have chosen? My paper is about my opinion of the story and how it ended. The names are my own creation. But before you read, decide what you think happened... Now you can read.

**Then the Rains Came**

Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right and opened it. Princess Claudia's breath caught in her throat as she buried her face in her hands. It seemed like ages before the shrieks reached her ears. Unable to retain her curiosity and fear Claudia lifted her eyes to the pitiful man below her. What she saw hardly surprised her. Her lover, Hector, lay on the ground cowering protectively over his side; blood seeping sluggishly from the wound there with his face painfully twisted in agony. He drew a shuddering breath into his punctured lungs then looked up and met her eyes with his own beautiful, stormy gray ones. In an instant, Claudia understood that he had known she would point him towards his death, and he had welcomed it rather then marry another. She stood to call out an apology for her treachery but her cries could not reach him over the crowds. He nodded slightly to say he understood her deceit, his love for her still apparent in his gentle gaze, then his eyes filled with torturous grief before he fainted from the unbearable pain. The tiger closed in on its prey, following instinct, no longer amused once the man had stopped squirming in pain. Claudia lifted her hand to her mouth and stared without seeing anything before her, then she turned and walked away, running once she was out of the people's eyesight.

Claudia didn't stop running until she reached the sea. She stopped at the top of a cliff and looked over the edge; the foamy waves swirled below her, almost black in color. The glowing red sky looked like the blood she had seen in the arena. Looking down she saw how her hands reflected the scarlet sky, she saw her lover in her mind's eye; the blood of her beloved stained her hands. Claudia realized with a shock that she had yet to shed a tear for her love, and furthermore that she still did not feel the need to cry. Hector would have wanted it like that; he would never have wanted her to grieve for him. He had told her so once, when she had complained that they could never marry, he had told her that they would always be together in their hearts, that she should never shed a tear for their forbidden love; it was doomed from the beginning.

Why did she kill him? Claudia threw herself down onto the jagged shale, scraping her palms, and gazed at the now angrily crashing waves some ninety feet below her. Dark storm clouds gathered ominously on the horizon. He had looked as though he had understood. He wanted to die for her, so they could be together again. He sacrificed his very life to be true to her, she should have been willing to sacrifice her happiness for his life. The knowledge that he had expected her betrayal made her feel even more the worst of the unrepentant sinners. In her inner turmoil Claudia hardly realized the clouds now gathering directly above her. A lightning bolt crackled just a few hundred feet away from her and the thrashing wind ripped the bronze hairpins from her dark mahogany curls, whipping them cruelly into her face and eyes.

I wanted him for my own; Claudia finally accepted the truth of her horrid, selfish nature. She was too jealous of a woman to see him marry another, to see him smile upon that undeserving wretch that would replace her in his heart; to hear how they lived in domestic bliss together, to meet his children with his curly black hair and their mother's bright blue eyes would be torture beyond her capability. He had loving nature; Hector would have found a way to love his wife while Claudia would have withered away in despair and envy with some ancient, sickly prince who would keep her in a cage like a pretty songbird until the wheel of time had worn away all traces of youth and beauty from her countenance. She realized now, an hour too late, that Hector never would have loved anyone beside herself, not even if she forgot him for a new love of her own. Pressure was building in the air around Claudia, but still the rains did not come. He had been in such excruciating pain, but he had nodded through his suffering, he would meet her and love her in the next life, whatever life that was.

"I will always find you," Claudia's words were torn from her lips by the dry wind and blown off to whatever place all prayers are sent. Gazing at the deep purple horizon she watched as her life was lain out before her as though etched into the very sky. Watching Hector live and flourish without her by his side would have been painful, but knowing her lover was happy would have been a just reward. She took a few steps back from the cliff's edge and turned as though to head back to the city, then she paused. To live without Hector, it would be unbearable, it was unfathomable, and with his blood permanently staining her hands and conscience. Claudia turned from her brief repose into her mind's control and, with the guidance of her heart, ran back towards the roiling sea with sure, unfaltering steps and soared over the precipice. "See you soon, my love," Claudia murmured as her frail body descended, her thin amber gown fanning out behind her like a demonic form of angel's wings. "Forgive me," she whispered almost inaudibly into the bone chilling air. A flash of lightning turned Claudia and her gown into a perfect cream color for a split second, like that of the wedding gown that she would never wear. Just before Claudia entered the furiously roaring water the first and last tear for her love slipped out of the corner of her eye. She plunged into the watery depths; then the rains came.

A/N: I know this is really different from my harry potter based fluffy james/lily stuff, but i think its a really good piece of writing and I want people to read it and give me opinions. (ps. I was so excited I got an A+ on this).


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